Centre's 2011 Caste Census Report Unhelpful To Identify Socially & Educationally Backward Classes : Kerala Govt Tells Supreme Court

This counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the State of Kerala by its chief secretary is in response to a contempt petition initiated by the Minority Indians Planning and Vigilance Commission Trust, alleging that the union government, the state government, and the Kerala State Commission for Backward Classes (KSCBC) failed to adhere to the court's directives to revise the reservation list following a socio-economic study.

The Kerala government has refuted allegations of intentional disobedience to the court's directions, claiming that it was not in possession of the socio-economic survey report, as it was not published by the central government. The state government has further contended that it requested the Centre to share the socio-economic data of the state for the identification of backward classes. Defending the state's position, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government has claimed that a 'purported report' on the Socio-Economic Caste Census, 2011, forwarded to the KSCBC chairman in May last year was unhelpful for identifying socially and educationally backward classes within the state and any socio-economic caste data. The report also does not contain any socio-economic caste data, whatsoever, the State of Kerala has stated.

Not only has the Kerala government emphasises its commitment to actions in favour of backward classes and scheduled castes and tribes, as mandated by the Constitution of India, but it has also questioned the maintainability of the contempt petition, urging the court to drop the contempt proceedings against it. On the maintainability aspect, the affidavit states –

“The contempt petition may not be maintainable before this court, insofar as the proceedings before this court were terminated at the special leave petition stage itself. Later, the review petitions filed against the same were also dismissed.”

The current legal controversy can be traced back to Kerala High Court's direction in September 2020, instructing the union government to finalise a socio-economic study report to identify SEBCs in the state. Despite the Supreme Court's dismissal of the union's challenge against this order in June 2021, additional time was granted for compliance.

In its contempt petition filed in the Supreme Court, the petitioner organisation alleged that, even with the extended time, the directions have not been fulfilled. It pointed particularly to the passage of almost 30 years passing since the top court's Indira Sawhney judgment to highlight the necessity to revise the reservation list every 10 years. The trust also claimed that the non-revision of the list resulted in the Muslim community, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and 70 other backward classes being under-represented in Kerala public services. A bench headed by Justice BR Gavai issued notice in this contempt petition last year in September.

In related news, the State of Maharashtra had filed a writ petition in 2021 asking for the union government to be directed to share the raw census data collected in the Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011. The Supreme Court, however, had refused to accede to the Maharashtra government's request, after noting the Centre's stance that the SECC was not an exercise to enumerate backward classes data and that the caste data collected in the course of this census was fraught with errors. The union government had also told the top court that the SECC was not a census exercise undertaken under the Census Act, 1948, having been done on the strength of executive instructions to enumerate the caste status of households for delivery of targeted benefits.